New DIY Ca reactor

[DrMilhouse]

More or less finished mine up tonight. looking for leaks, still waiting for my CO2 tank and regulator.

 

[jeyes1]

got it all hooked up and i keep getting leaks at the rubber screw down caps, anyone else having this problem

 

[greeneyedblackcat]

I dont have that problem with my caps, your internal seal may be damaged, just take it apart and silicone the stem to the bottom base, that should take care of it.

 

[jeyes1]

good solution,,i have the perilistic pump feeding the unit at 200ml/hour and 20 buubles per min,sound about right as a starting point

 

[DrMilhouse]

I'm guessing it's the seal around the top. because the top peices are 4 " couplers, they're too big for the hand tite caps. I had to take a piece of 4" pvc and put it in there to take up the space. (the left over acrylic would work, but I have other plans for that, plus it's expensive. After putting that in there, the coupler/4"pvc actually had a leak which LOOKED LIKE it was coming from the hand tite cap. My handy helper tried to tighten it down so much he broke the screw mechanism of the cap.

long post short: Just make sure you have a nice tight seal around the top before you even put the plugs on.

 

[jeyes1]

i have a piece of 4" glued into the coupling and the plugs are in the 4" pipe, not the coupling.plumbing i hate plumbing(only when it leaks)

 

[greeneyedblackcat]

Your pump feed sounds kind of low, It is dependant on your tanks needs, what is the ph of your effluent, the output of the second chamber should have a ph of about 6.8.

 

[jeyes1]

i havent got that far yet its only been running 1 and a half hours,,i'll bump up the pump to its max,300ml/hr

 

[vmichael]

I have a total of 330 gallons;
how much water should my pump be feeding

 

[coralreefing]

This thread inspired me to build a reactor, although due to space, my design is a bit different. I am currently running a single chamber at 180 DPM & 20 BPM. The problem is I can't get the PH below 7.0. I adjusted the bubble rate up to where my recirc loop was circulating a full stream of bubbles that made the media appear as if it were boiling & even thn the effluent PH was 6.7. I'm beginning to wonder if I bought a tank of air instead of co2.
Any ideas?

Chris

 

[greeneyedblackcat]

Sounds like your drip rate is to high, cut down the water going in.

 

[jeyes1]

gebc,what dosing pump are you using, it looks like a kangaroo pump to me,if so what model,my kangaroo 324 maxes out at 300ml\hr, my other pump that i haven't gotten yet,should tomorrow, is a mustang 300 with a max of 999ml\hr..just wondering as i'm using an old rio temp to feed the reactor with tank water,,i did get the top from leaking,bought 2 4" rubber caps with hose clamps,i did a pressure test on the unit, about 8lbs\sq.in.

 

[greeneyedblackcat]

pump

pump

I use a lab pump now for its higher flow, it is an Alitea and I bought two of them off ebay for $135 each, they were brand new, that sounds like a lot but they retail for $500+ each, here is a picture.

 

[jeyes1]

nice pump,i'm hoping that the avi mustang 3000 that i bought really does 999ml\hr as i only pd. 31$ for it on ebay,i noticed your running at 900ml\hr, still breaking mine in had to shut it down last night cause of leakage but today so far so good

 

[greeneyedblackcat]

I use JG stem elbows in my peri tubing to couple to the 1/4" poly tubing. Works great!

 

[coralreefing]

What do you use between the media & drain grates. I think the pad I used may be restricting flow causing the co2 to bubble out of solution.

Chris

 

[greeneyedblackcat]

I use a cut up pond filter pad on the top and bottom of the media on both chambers.

 

[tbhf]

the fluval 203 filter pads fit perfect in the tubes

 

[coralreefing]

SUCCESS AT LAST! I replaced the pads I had with foam prefilter pads & today EPH is 6.4. Now I just need to find the correct efflunt rate.

 

[Gerard Alba]

How does it perform?